As two teenagers from Colorado Springs reached the summit of the towering Mount of the Holy Cross on Monday night in a severe snowstorm, the reality of their circumstance began to set in.

It was about 7 p.m., hours after they had planned to reach the top of the 14,005-foot peak up a couloir, and the pair — 17 and 18 years old — could not find the ridgeline to descend in the pitch-black night and fierce, freezing winds. They had left their sleeping bags and other gear at a camp far below, down a precarious route through steep, rocky terrain.

The teens phoned their parents to give them a heads-up about the situation and walked down about 400 feet to an overhanging rock where they lay parallel in their coats with their feet in each other’s armpits to keep warm.

Joe Amon, The Denver Post

Tommy Hendricks, 18, and his climbing Matt Smith, 17, are hugged by Tommy’s father, Herbert Hendricks, at the University of Colorado Burn Center in Aurora where they were treated for frostbite on Nov. 25, 2016, after being stranded while climbing the Mount of the Holy Cross.

“It was just bare survival at that point,” said Tommy Hendricks, a senior at Coronado High School, as he laid in a hospital bed in Aurora. “There’s no way we were going to make it down safely. … Going back down that couloir would have been suicide.”

The scene atop Mount of the Holy Cross in Eagle County kicked off a nearly 48-hour ordeal that eventually ended with the friends’ rescue from a meadow a few miles below. Both escaped without serious injury and are expected to recover from significant frostbite to parts of their hands and feet.

Hendricks, 18, and his hiking partner Matthew Smith, 17, recounted their experience Friday morning in a room at the University of Colorado Hospital’s burn center. The two have been treated there since being plucked from the wilderness by a helicopter Wednesday afternoon.

Hendricks and Smith credit their survival to staying confident, while rescuers and their doctor say the pair stayed alive and escaped long-term harm probably because of their preparedness, young age, decision to ration their food and the quick response of medical personnel.

“For me, it was honestly, like, a really spiritual mountain,” Hendricks said of why he and Smith decided to climb the mountain in November. “It was kind of like a quest we had to go on.”

Denver Post file

Mount of the Holy Cross in the Holy Cross Wilderness area of the Sawatch Range during a fly-over of the proposed Hidden Gems Wilderness Areas in Eagle and Summit County.

Holy Cross, named for its cross-shaped rock and snow formation, is one of the more challenging 14,000-foot mountains in Colorado to climb. Some call the peak the “Bermuda Triangle” because so many hikers and climbers get lost on the way to and from its summit.

The teens say they had planned their ascent of Holy Cross for weeks, drawing up an itinerary and keeping close tabs on weather reports — which ultimately led to their problems.

“Don’t trust technology — the weather forecast,” Smith said while sitting in a wheelchair, his feet bandaged and an intravenous line in his arm. “We thought the storm was going to hit Tuesday. And it hit Monday night.”

Another problem: There was more snow near the summit of Holy Cross than they were expecting, which slowed their ascent. They kept going, however, in order to reach the peak to get cellphone service and call their families before 10 p.m. as promised.

“I wish I had written a better itinerary,” said Smith, a junior at Coronado. “I (now) think my itinerary is a piece of junk. But it shows you just how concerned about the details we were. People think we just go into this. We’re really, really detailed about every single step.”

On Tuesday, Smith and Hendricks descended farther from Holy Cross using the technical climbing gear they had with them. They spent Tuesday night under another overhanging rock to protect them from the elements and tried to use batteries from a headlamp to start a fire. But that didn’t work.

Contrary to earlier reports from rescuers, the duo had no way to make a fire. Their lighter was too waterlogged and they didn’t have all-weather matches. They had left their sleeping bags and other provisions at a base camp, thinking they would not be spending the night on Holy Cross.

About midday Wednesday, Hendricks and Smith spotted a Black Hawk helicopter from the High-Altitude Aviation Training Site in Gypsum that was searching for them. It made several passes and did not stop, which briefly led to some despair; Smith said he broke down and cried.

“You could see your salvation right there,” said Hendricks, whose father, Herbert, is a well-known climber.

Eventually, a fixed-wing airplane spotted their tracks from above and rescuers were sent in to hoist the teens out of the wilderness to safety. They had just a few granola bars left.

The two missing hikers from today's search mission have been located and extracted. They are safe and in good health.

“These boys came in with third-degree frostbite, meaning they had damage all the way through the skin to the soft tissues,” said Dr. Anne Wagner, medical director for the burn center at UCHealth and an expert on frostbite. “Our time clock in frostbite starts as soon as an injury gets rewarmed.”

Joe Amon, The Denver Post

Older sister Heather Hendricks reaches in carefully to touch the frostbitten toe of her younger brother Tommy Hendricks, 18, while his climbing partner Matt Smith, 17, watches as they tell stories of their adventure during their recovery at University of Colorado Burn Center on Nov. 25, 2016, in Aurora. The boys were rescued from the Eagle County wilderness near Mount of the Holy Cross after two days in frigid weather conditions.

Medical responders quickly gave the teens blood-clot-busting medication — thrombolytic drugs — as they moved them to the hospital.

“They should end up with little to no tissue loss,” said Wagner, who credits a quick response to preventing any major frostbite damage. “Their toes were white-purple, frozen when they came in.”

She added: “I think they were dressed appropriately. They were just stuck outside longer than they had anticipated. … They were smart about what they did.”

“It was the hardest time I’ve ever been through in my life,” Hendricks’ mother, Peggy, said Friday. “It was 48 hours of controlled panic.” She said she wasn’t worried about the trip at first because the young men had climbed several other 14,000-foot mountains together, including the notoriously tough Capital and Maroon peaks.

At one point, Hendricks’ older sister arrived at the search headquarters in Eagle County only to be led to a chapel and given no information. That briefly set off a panic that the pair had been found dead.

The two said they are eager to get back to climbing as soon as possible and were even planning their next trip while in the ambulance. They are hoping to head back to Eagle County to thank their rescuers.

“This is definitely not going to stop us from climbing,” Hendricks said. “It’s our passion.”

They were expected to be released by Friday night, but are slated to return for more medical care as their injuries heal.

“We’re so happy that we’re able to sit here and not be planning a funeral,” Peggy Hendricks said.

Joe Amon, The Denver Post

Tommy Hendricks, 18, and his climbing partner Matt Smith, 17, both of Colorado Springs, tell stories of their adventure while recovering at University of Colorado Burn Center in Aurora on Nov. 25, 2016. The boys were rescued from the Eagle County wilderness near Mount of the Holy Cross after two days in frigid weather conditions that came after a storm hit them on their descent.

Politics reporter. He has worked at The Denver Post since the summer of 2014, covering cops, courts, politics, environment, skiing and everything in between. He loves telling stories about Colorado's mountain towns and the Eastern Plains and wants to make sure our newspaper's great work extends into their communities.